Finance committee  No, I'm not suggesting that at all. I guess what we're looking at.... While we had some testimony that there is intellectual property being spun out of universities and hospitals, it's not enough. Our recommendation would be that we look at some of that funding and try to incen

Finance committee  Good morning, Mr. Chairman and committee members. Thank you for inviting us to speak to you today. My name is Andrew Wilkes, and I chair the National Angel Capital Organization, a non-profit association of angel investors and investor groups from across Canada. NACO has 5,000 an

Industry committee  Absolutely. Part of the problem is that we criticize our entrepreneurs when they fail. In the United States, failure is a good thing. They've gone out and tried to build a business and they move on to the next business. It is a mindset; yes, we are risk-averse. But you can't trai

Industry committee  I would argue that you should let private enterprise do it.

Industry committee  No. I think you should develop a program--you know, we had tax credits that went into the labour sponsored investment funds program--and let private enterprise work alongside and decide which entrepreneurs to back. It's a private-public partnership that is really going to help th

Industry committee  Yes, on the same comment. I've recently invested in a warehouse automation company in Mississauga. The dollar really clobbered them, especially on contracts they had out two or three years ago. They ended up losing money because they sold in U.S. dollars and the value of the reve

Industry committee  Can I add something?

Industry committee  One of the previous finance ministers asked us about five years ago what was the one thing that the government could do for angels to get them to put more money to work. They looked at this idea of being tax-free at the end, and they said it wasn't the issue; the issue to attract

Industry committee  Good morning. I'd like to say a few words about investing, a program that is working effectively in an industry, and two or three quick recommendations to put out to the committee for review. The first thing is about the first principle of investing, that being that investment